President's Day Weekend

I didn't have to teach seminary Friday or Monday mornings because the high school kids didn't have school. I toyed with the idea of driving myself and 2 boys to West Virginia to see my mom who was watching my brothers kids. I decided against it and found out later that my dad was there for the weekend too! We had a good weekend.

Thursday afternoon was pretty warm, so I took the boys outside for a bit. It was fun to stay up late that night catching up on tv shows I had missed during the week.

Friday was supposed to be a really nice day, so we met up with some friends at the park to play and eat lunch. I think we were there 2 1/2 hours or so. It was nice. Barrett had a city council meeting that afternoon/evening and didn't get home until 7:00ish. I ended up hemming my new temple dress.

Saturday we went down to the temple. Nathan volunteered to watch our boys so Barrett and I could go into the temple together. We picked him up at the Metro station and took off. Nathan had some good stories for us about the boys...Tommy telling the sister missionaries that he was Superman and the boys having a 5 minute conversation about booty's and how we don't touch them. Oh boy. Barrett ran Damon into the Visitor's Center to use the bathroom before we headed off on another adventure, but as he was coming out of the Visitor's Center, a huge gust of wind (it was super windy all day!) caught the door and pulled it off it's hinges! Barrett broke the door:) Oops. Nathan drove us down to his new place. It was fun to see his nice new condo and cute little town. We had lunch at CPK then went to a monument by the Pentagon (I think it was the Air Force monument...I wasn't really paying much attention I guess). It was so windy...which didn't make for good photos. It certainly had a beautiful view though. Nathan took us one last place before we had to part ways...The Dairy Godmother. It was so good, we all loved it!! The day was so fun and we had a great time! (I was really missing my sister living here) Barrett had to chaperone a youth dance that night, so once we got home, he had to leave.

Sunday was normal, for a Sunday. Church, entertaining boys, staying up late:)

Monday we made pancakes and buttermilk caramel syrup. Barrett had to go to work. We had checked out a book at the library about President's Day and I told Damon we'd make 3 corner hats. He was so excited. We picked up a few things at Sam's Club and Walmart in the morning. After lunch we made 3 corner hats and looked at the presidents on money and tried to make log cabins out of pretzel sticks. Tommy put on his hat and said "cheese!" I guess he's used to the routine now...make something cool and take a picture:)

That night, I made cookies in ramekins then put ice cream and the buttermilk caramel syrup (from the morning) on them...sooo delicious! I saw the idea on a blog (Our Best Bites).

Tuesday morning we woke up to snow! School was cancelled, which meant I didn't have seminary! So, longer weekend! The boys bundled up after breakfast and headed outside. They helped Barrett clean off the cars and shovel the driveway...and did a little playing.

When they came in, Damon realized he had on brown sweatpants and a brown sweatshirt. We came up the stairs and saw him laying on the kitchen table. I asked what he was doing and he said, "I'm in disguise!" I think he meant he was camouflaged, but it still got a laugh out of us!! Barrett had to go to work so we just hung out and did a lot of coloring

Recipe Review

I have been finding new recipe blogs and found some pretty delicious things lately. I thought I'd share.

1. Cinnamon Swirl Bread from The Idea Room found here. I decided to try this one day and ended up making it again the following week. Barrett said it tasted like Kneader's cinnamon bread...I didn't think so, but it WAS so delicious!! The whole family gobbled it up! I even gave one loaf away:) I was able to make 2 loaves...just be sure to make sure the edges are tucked under or the cinnamon bubbles out onto your oven racks:)

2. Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas from Becoming Betty found here. I found this blog through my cousin's blog and discovered that my sister-in-law's sister-in-law is one of the girls that adds recipes. Kinda fun. These enchiladas were soooooo tasty!! Barrett was super impressed and we both loved them. We made them the following week too:)

3. S'mores Cupcakes from Oopsey Daisy found here. We love toasted marshmallows at our house which means we love s'mores. I always get really excited to try s'mores recipes, but they always make me want to eat a real s'mores:) Check out this blog and the actual source for the recipe. We changed ours up a bit. We whipped up the cream filling, but Barrett decided he'd rather have a scoop of marshmallow cream inside. And instead of using a meringue on top, we used little marshmallows then broiled them. These cupcakes tasted pretty good, but took a really long time. Tommy fell asleep watching a show before we could finish these up.

4. Creamy Chicken Taquitos from Our Best Bites found here. I can't remember how I found this site, but I don't care...I'm just glad I did! This recipe is soooo good!! You bake these little guys and they are delicious! Barrett couldn't believe how tasty it was! I made the creamy-lime cilantro dressing they suggested. This was a super good meal and we loved it!!

5. Coconut and Cashew Granola from Mel's Kitchen Cafe found here. We love granola and I've been trying to find a recipe so I can make it. Most recipes have flax seed and other nutritious stuff that I know nothing about, so I'm afraid to try them. My sister in law brought some homemade granola with her when she came for Thanksgiving. I'm not positive, but I think this might be the same recipe she used. We loved it! The best part was I had most everything already and didn't need to buy scary stuff...just pure maple syrup:) It is really easy and really tasty! Oh, I left the raisins out...I was going to use craisins, but wasn't sure Barrett would want them in his granola if he used it for yogurt. Still good!

So, try 'em out, you won't be sorry:)

Love Day

We had pink heart pancakes with whipped cream and heart shaped strawberries for breakfast. We put heart cookies in Daddy's lunch. Our car desperately needed an oil change and tires rotated, so the boys and I headed to Sears to get things taken care of. We roamed the mall for 2 hours. We had a nice Valentine's lunch of Subway sandwiches (not exactly what I had in mind). For dinner we had strawberry banana smoothies, scrambled eggs (I almost dyed them pink, but didn't think it would go over very well), heart biscuits, and Lil' Smokies. Our Family Home Evening lesson was about loving our family and then we decorated Valentine's bags and delivered our Valentines to each other. The boys were so excited! Tommy kept telling everyone Happy Valentine's Day...watch the video to see how cute he sounded.

(I think my eyes are closed...Barrett suggested we take another photo just in case, but I didn't care...now maybe I do)

Cute Moments

We bought Damon a new suit this weekend. He was sooooo excited he didn't care he didn't have nice shoes to wear with it. He insisted I take a picture of the whole thing and get his shoes in it. Aren't these two boys so cute?! By the way, Tommy hates church clothes. It is a huge fight every Sunday morning. I try to encourage him by saying he could look like a big boy like Damon or Daddy, but he wants nothing to do with it. I even let him pick between vests...he still puts up a fight. At least he's finally staying in nursery without many tears (which can be dried away by animal crackers from the nursery leaders).



I've come across some really cute crafting blogs lately. I found both these ideas from here. I love them both and they make me happy:)

The boys watercolored the other day. Tommy was adorable. He was concentrating so hard and ended up with paint all up is arm and little splatters on his face.